How did a boy from Adelaide’s western suburbs become a star of the luxury fashion world? He dared to dream. Now, with aspirations to build Paolo Sebastian into an international label, and with the woman of his dreams by his side, the sky’s the limit for humble yet hard-working designer Paul Vasileff.

Words and Photographs Ben Kelly

“They say if you dream a thing more than once, it’s sure to come true,” says princess Aurora in the classic 1959 Disney film, Sleeping Beauty. While having a dream is one thing, turning it into a reality is another, and yet here sits Paul Vasileff having manifested his own destiny – the dream of a young kid from Seaton with a love of Disney films and a bold aspiration to be a fashion designer.

When SALIFE meets Paul at the Gouger Street atelier of his label Paolo Sebastian, where he and his team painstakingly fabricate intricate luxury gowns that find their way to runways in Europe and red carpets in America, the 34-year-old Christian Brothers College graduate doesn’t hesitate when asked to name his favourite Disney film: Sleeping Beauty.

The film was so inspirational for Paul that close to a decade ago he wrote to actor Mary Costa, the voice of Aurora, to thank her, not imagining the doors that letter would open.

“We were packing up our first Paolo Sebastian office to move here to Gouger Street in 2015 and I don’t know what compelled me to do it, I think we had Disney music playing in the background, but I thought to write her a letter. It was just to a fan-mail address,” says Paul.

“I wrote to Mary just to say, ‘thank you, because your voice has been such an inspiration to me’. I wasn’t expecting anything from it, but later I saw an American number come up on my phone and when I picked it up, Mary was on the other end. She said, ‘If there’s anything I can ever do to help you, let me know’. So, when I had the idea to create a Disney collection, Mary was the first person I called. She’s since become a very dear friend.”

In 2017, Paul collaborated with Disney to create the collection Once Upon A Dream, which marked the 10^th year of his couture fashion house, Paolo Sebastian. “Even before I wanted to be a fashion designer, I wanted to be an animator for Disney, so getting to work on that collection was incredible. I got invited to Walt Disney Studios and had a private tour of Walt’s office and I got to hold an Oscar,” he says.

Since founding Paolo Sebastian in 2007, Paul and his team have worked with a star-studded list of clients including Katy Perry, Poppy Delevingne, Kim Kardashian and Heidi Klum, all gracing prestigious red carpets wearing gowns crafted in Adelaide. Paolo Sebastian has dressed nine people for the Oscars over the years and Paul laughs as he recalls taking his first red carpet request.

“For our very first Oscars, we got an email from the stylist for (American television host) Giuliana Rancic,” recalls Paul.

This was a Tuesday afternoon here in Adelaide, and she called in a number of dresses for a fitting that was happening that Thursday in LA.

“We madly ran around pulling dresses off mannequins, fitted them into a box with tissue paper and took them to the post office just before it closed. I didn’t hear anything back for a couple of months. Then, on the morning of the Oscars, I woke up and I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, she’s wearing our dress!’ I literally ran around the house jumping up and down.

“I would watch the Oscars red carpet as a kid and to have one of my pieces be one that other people were watching on TV was not something I had even imagined.”

In 2023, Paul and his team worked with Jodi Benson, the original voice of Ariel, to make her gown for the red-carpet premiere of the live-action remake of The Little Mermaid.

“It’s come full circle for me to work with these people who I idolise and have a deep love and nostalgic connection to, as millions of people have. It is a very humbling reminder of why I started doing what I do,” says Paul.

Paul’s journey in fashion began when he could barely walk, under the loving tutelage of his late nonna Domenica, a talented seamstress who babysat Paul and his two brothers while his parents Franca and Ignat were at work. Paul was fascinated by the idea of Cinderella-like transformation and was making dresses, of sorts, from a young age.

“I have a fond memory of my friend’s third birthday party, where I took the blue foil wrapping paper from one of her presents, sticky-taped it around her into a dress and made her walk around in it,” says Paul. The pull towards fashion only grew stronger and in high school, Paul was making dresses for friends’ school formals and graduations.

The show Paul staged as part of his Year 12 studies is legendary. Not able to afford models, he called upon all the friends he’d made dresses for to model for him. “Like many Italian families, we had the ‘good’ front lounge room, the one with the good couch that you don’t sit on. I turned that lounge into an atelier and salon,” says Paul.

“I’d leave school early and run to catch the bus so that I could get home and sew until 3am, wake up to catch the bus to do it all over again. As a 17-year-old, I had to be disciplined because I didn’t want to let anyone down.

“I did make sacrifices. I was starting a business and that sounds exciting, but everyone else was going to parties and socialising, while I was doing my homework in my lunch break so that I could go home and sew.

“I hired a venue, and I remember going to visit it and the room was huge. I thought: ‘I’ve made a big mistake here – I’m going to be a laughing stock’. I thought we’d be lucky to have 100 people show up, but on the night, there were 660 people with a line down the block.

“Putting on that show is still one of the greatest experiences of my life because all my friends, family and neighbours knew how much I wanted this dream, and they wanted it just as much for me. It’s because of those people that I’m where I am today.”

At age 19, Paul won a scholarship to the Istituto Europeo di Design in Milan where he produced work for London Fashion Week, travelled to Paris and rubbed shoulders with industry icons. He graduated with honours.

“I’d never lived out of home, I’d never been overseas, I didn’t speak Italian and the school was intense, but it was incredible. I even met Giorgio Armani; a real pinch-me moment,” says Paul.

“Although I was having so many wonderful experiences, I’d look around and there was no one to share them with. Milan was very different from Adelaide where I had a great community that supported me. I got really homesick.

“I knew that I wanted to create a brand on an international scale, but it had to be from Adelaide. I came home and immediately realised I couldn’t be taken seriously if I was operating out of Mum and Dad’s loungeroom.”

Paul founded Paolo Sebastian – Sebastian being his middle name – in 2007. “I rented a small studio with the money I’d saved from making dresses. I was a one-man-band working until 3am, doing all the cutting, sewing and bookkeeping. It wasn’t viable; I had to build a team,” he says.

In 2015, Paolo Sebastian moved to its current location, now with 20 staff helping to produce gowns for brides, fashion shows and red carpets. His team includes 73-year-old Pina who once mentored Paul when he did a short tailoring apprenticeship soon after finishing school.

An interesting quirk of Paul’s is that his own wardrobe is comprised of slight variations on the same outfit, for a similar reason to Mark Zuckerberg who famously said the less choices he had to make in his routine, the more energy he had for making important decisions.

“I normally wear the same thing every day,” laughs Paul. “I’ve got the same jumper 14 times, and I also have it in a short sleeve version. It doesn’t matter which item I pick out of my wardrobe, they all match. I’m making decisions all day, and this is just one less thing to have to worry about.”

Paul says he is “always on” and does his best work under pressure. “I do tend to get my best ideas at midnight, which isn’t always conducive to healthy sleep a lot of the time,” he says. “It’s my passion.”

But when Anna Frangiosa came into his life in 2019, Paul was given a healthy new perspective on his work-life balance.

“Meeting Anna has been one of the greatest things, because until then it had been all about work and a lot of sacrifice. I knew that if I wanted to have a relationship, I would need to find a balance,” says Paul.

“It feels as though my life has really come together in the last couple of years. What made me fall in love with Anna was that she saw me just for me and not for what I did for work. It feels like I’ve known her my whole life.”

Anna says that when they first started dating, Paul’s lifestyle came as a surprise. “Paul was travelling a lot when we first met. He was in China, Paris, and interstate, and I anticipated this was how it was going to be,” says Anna.

“Then Covid happened, and travel was off the cards. Paul was under a lot of pressure, but the silver lining for us was that we spent more time together and quickly got to know each other. There were a lot of cook ups at home, watching shows together, and a lot of good downtime. We’ve continued that routine.

“He’s the same person in whatever setting he’s in – it’s a very authentic trait. What you see is what he’s like at home; always kind, caring, and very easy going. We have a lot of fun together, and we have similar core values that make us compatible.”

In early 2023, the couple hosted a magical wedding at Mandalay House and Garden. Paul designed three separate dresses for Anna, and created gowns for the bridesmaids, both of their mums, two flower girls, “and half the guests,” laughs Anna.

“He was a machine. I don’t know how he did it,” she says. “It was a moonlit garden party and it was as if I was walking into a dream. Each dress told a story with sentiments woven into the garments. I had a special love for my second dress because that was my Cinderella moment, swishing and floating around during our first dance.”

Paul says creating dresses for both of their mums was a joy. “My mum didn’t even want a new dress – I said, ‘no, I’m making you a dress!’ To see her smile, swish and twirl around in it comes back to why I love what I do. To give someone a magical experience is a wonderful feeling. Putting someone into their own fairytale never gets old.”

Paolo Sebastian will launch its Autumn/Winter couture collection this month, delayed because of the timing of the Olympics. All Paul can reveal is that the collection will be a little different for Paolo Sebastian. “We’re experimenting with different creative techniques in the atelier, so I’m excited to show people what we’ve been working on,” he says. “I do still get nervous to see what people think and as time goes on, I feel the pressure more and more. In those early years, there were no expectations, I was free to do whatever I wanted but now, people are so excited to see what you’re going to do next.”

In February this year, Paolo Sebastian launched its collection Allora Domenica, which was dedicated to Paul’s nonna who sadly passed away in May at the age of 95. Paul interviewed Domenica as part of the process of designing the gowns, and he is grateful she was able to see the collection come to fruition.

“That was the most personal thing that I’ve ever put out there. It was so wonderful to work with her, getting her input and incorporating parts of my childhood in the embroideries and the colour palette,” he says.

“She was sharp as anything and very honest about what she didn’t like. The embroidery pattern on one dress was traced from the dress that she wore to my mum’s wedding. You might see the collection and not realise those things are in there but for me, they are very personal.”

Last year in Europe, Paolo Sebastian was reviewed as one of the standouts of the Paris Fashion Week season.

“When I’m meeting with clients overseas and they say how much everyone is talking about a particular collection over there, I have to pinch myself because I still see myself as a kid from Adelaide,” says Paul.

Paolo Sebastian is venturing beyond couture into the ready-to-wear space, having last year launched its first lines of shoes and scarves. “I’d love to one day do menswear and fragrances and all those things; it just takes time,” says Paul.

“My goal is for Paolo Sebastian to be an international brand, which takes a lot of work and having a continued presence not just in Paris, but throughout the world.” At the heart of Paul’s drive is simply the joy of seeing his clients transformed – the Cinderella effect he was so enamoured with as a child.

“We’re weaving dreams for people and that’s a great honour for the team and me,” he says.

“We all deserve to feel special, as if we’re living out our own dream and hopefully we can help do that for people.

“The greatest joy for me is seeing people put on their dress for the first time – the smile they have, the way they walk and carry themselves and swish around in their dresses.

“To be able to do that and share that with people is special. I’m not doing this job because I want to be famous, I’m passionate about making a difference.

“I’m very lucky with my job that I get to travel and see and do so many amazing things. I’ve been so fortunate to have experienced more in 34 years than some people may get to experience in a lifetime.”

Sticking to his vision against the opinion of others hasn’t always been easy, but Paul’s advice to anyone chasing a dream is to do it for the right reasons.

“When I was young, a lot of people told me that it wouldn’t be viable to do this from Adelaide,” he says. “I would say to anyone, in any field, do it because you genuinely, absolutely love it and you couldn’t go another day without doing it. Because even when things have been hard, there’s never been a day in 17 years that I’ve thought of giving up.

“Always be open to learning, have good people around you and listen to your gut. Follow your instincts.”

For each client Paul helps to live out their own fairytale, he is in turn living his childhood dream. However, as a Disney princess once said: “It serves me right for wishing on stars. The only way to get what you want in this world is through hard work.”

 

This article first appeared in the September 2024 issue of SALIFE magazine.